Nepal offer many festivals during the year in a kaleidoscope created by its different ethnic groups that have each kept its traditions. The most colorful one is Indra Jatra, which occurs in late September. The central event takes place in Kathmandu’s Durbar Square, which is completely packed; to get a good place, you should arrive a couple of hours earlier.
It is a celebration of various events that coincide in date. The event giving its name to the festival is the release of Indra from its captivity. Indra was the ancient Aryan god of rain who was allegedly captured in the valley by its inhabitants while searching for flowers. His mother, Dagini, rescued him with promises of heaven to the captors. This legend marks the transition from the rainy monsoon season to the fine months and gives a strong hint regarding how to plan your trip to Nepal. The short autumn following the monsoon is the best season for trekking; I began my trek there the day following Indra Jatra. A second reason for the festival is giving homage to Bahirab, which is a manifestation of Shiva as the destroyer of human ignorance and evil.
The impressive Seto (White) Bahirab face statue, in the northern outskirts of the square, is open only 3 days each year during the festival. For the joy of the locals, free beer flows from a tube emerging from its mouth in the evening of the first festival day. Kumari, the girl goddess, appears in an adorned chariot, with which she travels to the old palace and the old city. She is forbidden to touch the ground. Hence all her movements are somewhat cumbersome, and servants carry the little girl on their hands whenever she needs to move. Before the main event in the afternoon, you can visit her palace by the square’s main entrance at its southern side. The living quarters are closed but the inner yard is a masterpiece of Newari woodcarving.
The third event commemorated is the conquest of the valley by Prithvi Narayan Shah in 1768. Unlike other festivals in the country, this one has a central event in which the king participates from the old palace on the eastern part of the square. Kumari salutes the king from her chariot and a ritual dance of the god Kali, in which he fights an elephant, takes place just below the king’s balcony. The setup of the event within that fabulous medieval square, among the colorful temples, the surreal chariot and the goddess on it, the red-haired Kali and the cloth elephant, creates a fantastic sight that will not fade from your memory in the years to come.